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Make Sure the Project You’re Hired for Has Insurance!
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In this case, there are a couple of notable factors…
1. The 10,000 dollars worth of equipment would seem like small change if an inexperienced gaffer put an ENG-type tungsten instrument too close to a fire suppression sprinkler head in say…a library (don’t laugh, I know someone who was on such a shoot…)
2. Now that you are going to consider insurance for your own gear, it’s important to look at achieving some balance.
I know that a 6,000 dollar HVX is hard to replace for someone just starting out. However, make sure you carefully examine any policies for rates vs. deductibles. The closer to the first dollar the insurance company has to start paying, the more the insurance coverage costs…and it’s an extreme difference in many cases.
You may be able to set aside a thousand dollars from your fees for emergencies…and have a 1000.00 deductible on your equipment coverage, which will lower the cost of the insurance…possibly putting significant money back in your [pocket in exchange for you assuming the lower (sub-1000.00) risks.
**Also, be sure to inform your insurance agent that you need “all peril”, often also referred to as “inland marine” coverage so your equipment is covered no matter -where- it is or -who- uses it (with your permission of course).
On liability insurance…as others have stated, it’s not very expensive for what you get. It can be relatively inexpensive to buy a rider for a given day as well…that way you don’t pay for coverage for a month when you don’t even shoot, or you are shooting one-man band in a park with no major power issues or exotic carnivorous animals.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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[Ryan Domis] “Does that seem like a tuition that’s worth almost $20,000 a year? Nope!”
I feel your pain. As a film school grad I suffered similarly at both Boston University and The American Film Institute. When I was at the AFI it would have been much more appropriate to call it “The American 3/4-inch Video Institute.”
That being said, teaching filmmaking skills with a super-8 Bolex and a razor blade is not an entirely bad approach. It’s how I learned my craft and how many generations of filmmakers have gotten their hands-on experience too.
My best-ever photography teacher told a story about a time when Popular Photography Magazine held a contest in which they gave ten pin-hole cameras, made from shoe boxes, to ten of he world’s great photographers, giving each one of them just one shot at producing a single still image using the most rudimentary technology possible. When all was said and done, each of them had produced a world-class photograph that astonished everyone who saw them.
As my photography instructor used to say, “there is no photographer as good as the worst camera, and no filmmaker as good as the worst filmmaking equipment.” If a would-be artist is able to rise above his or her peers without the benefit of technology, it says an awful lot about their innate talent and their ability to tell a story. The people running a lot of schools know this and use it to their benefit when people complain about their crummy equipment. When you visit UCLA or USC and see their state of art facilities and equipment it does give one another perspective…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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I enjoyed reading Ryan’s post on this subject. Not only did I waste my parents money sending me to Polytechnic Institute of NY, where I learned nothing about electrical engineering, but I have since observed similar things – to this day – from almost every school (I am in the same town as infamous Full Sail – need I say more).
I wish you the best of luck.
Bob Zelin
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just last week we were on a shoot in a medical office. We turned on a 1K tungsten light, and the circuit for much of the office went out. Why the office had so many plugs on the same breaker is one question, but when the power was restored, we found out a few days later, a computer was damaged “beyond repair.” Our insurance is liable apparently.
Insurance is a must for any business – yes even for independent contractors.
Mike -
[Mike Cohen] “just last week we were on a shoot in a medical office. We turned on a 1K tungsten light, and the circuit for much of the office went out.”
Ah-good point Mike, this is another thread in itself…electrical awareness. You simply can’t go into any facility and start plugging in high surge, high draw electrical devices like video lighting without looking over the facility.
I always request a building maintenance person be available for any facility we weren’t familiar with or at least have someone on my crew who checked out the breaker layout as best we could determine. We used to hold up the shoot as long as necessary to determine if we could properly distribute our light current draw.
No commercial office space (or even industrial space) is wired to accommodate everything needed in the office, then have enough figured in to supply a video shoot on top of that…
We took down a server at a small insurance company once…the server’s 220v power supply had one leg tapped to provide a 110v outlet in some stupid place in the office. A boneheaded electrical move…my liability was $0.00 however as the building maintenance guy never suspected that outlet was pulling from there and we tapped that outlet at his direction…unfortunate for them (30 peaople got a couple days off), but we weren’t at fault.
Most medical facilities (and even many newer office buildings) will have orange outlets and neutral (white or bone) outlets to separate IT-safe or backup power circuits, and that can be useful in staying out of trouble.
…on the other hand, any office that doesn’t have a 70.00 UPS on every critical desktop computer in the place (or sxomething much beefier on a server) is playing with fire anyway…
Getting in the habit of scoping out electrical on an unadvanced location is a really good habit to get into…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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